Access to certain goods or property often needs to be limited or controlled. For example in a domestic situation cleaning products or other chemicals are often stored in kitchen cabinets. Where children or toddlers are able to reach such locations it becomes essential for access to the storage regions of the cabinets to be controlled and in most situations to be secured so as to prevent a toddler from gaining access to such locations. However some such kitchen cabinets are in frequent use by adults and it is not desirable for the manner in which access is restricted to the cabinets to be cumbersome or difficult to achieve. It is however desirable for any mechanism to lock the cabinets to be provided internal of the cabinets.
It normally does not take long for a toddler to figure out how an external locking arrangement may be rendered ineffective and it is hence desirable for any locking mechanism to be provided internally of the cabinet and hence out of sight of any enterprising toddler. An issue which will arise by having a locking mechanism mounted internally is that access to such may then also be difficult to obtain by an adult who does wish to have access to the interior of the cabinet. Electric latching devices actuated from external of a cabinet such as that disclosed for example in WO97/02399 can be utilized for such purposes. It is however desirable to operate any electric mechanisms in a manner where minimal power is consumed. Since in most circumstances the cabinet doors or drawers will be in a closed condition, in such a default condition it would be undesirable for continuous power to be drawn by a locking unit. In addition however it may be desirable that the locking arrangement is made redundant and that free and unfettered access to the cabinet can be achieved. Such may be desirable for a significant duration of time and it would be undesirable for the locking device to, during such periods of time, be drawing power from a power source in order to achieve such an unlocked position. It is accordingly desirable to be able to isolate the locking device in a condition where it does not provide a restriction to the opening of a cabinet yet still not draw a significant amount of power from the power source when operated in such a condition. Indeed where a single power source may provide power to several locking devices for different cabinet doors or drawers it may be desirable that for a significant duration of time, one or more of the locking units is in such a condition where it does provide operative locking to the door or door with which it is associated.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a cabinet lock which addresses the abovementioned desiderata or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.